Designer Diary #12 – Bringing Fantasy and Freedom to Everyday Heroes
Hi there! I’m Anne—Sig’s wife and behind-the-scenes helper at Sig Trent Games.
This week, our main focus has been Shotgun Fantasy, our fantasy roleplaying game supplement built for the Everyday Heroes system. It’s kind of a reverse-engineering moment. Everyday Heroes is designed to bring modern mechanics into roleplaying—but what happens when you take a fantasy setting and try to fit it into those same modern rules? That’s what we’re figuring out.
One of the trickiest parts is translating professions and wealth into a medieval fantasy context. I mean, it’s not like our fantasy characters are applying for desk jobs, right? But we still want characters to have meaningful backgrounds—so we’ve adapted professions to represent things like peasants, guild apprentices, and minor nobles. Wealth levels are still there (because honestly, it helps so much with balance), but we’re also bringing back gold and silver for that good old D&D flavor.
Sig and I talked a lot about choice support this week. Basically, if you offer a player an option—like, say, “You can play a noble rogue with shadow magic”—you need to back that up with enough mechanics to make it fun and playable. That means adding spells, feats, gear, and story hooks that fully support those choices. We’re making sure that no character concept feels left behind.
We’re also laying the foundation for the spellcasting system, not just for Shotgun Fantasy, but also for another secret project we’re collaborating on with LPJ Design (can’t say much yet, but it’s going to be awesome). We want magic to feel powerful but manageable, flexible but grounded in rules. Not too crunchy, not too loose. Just right.
Oh—and big news! Our products are now up on the Sidekick platform by Evil Genius Games. You can grab a full set of Hero Sheets for just $5. They’re a great way to build Everyday Heroes characters fast, and they’ll be even more helpful once Shotgun Fantasy drops.
Sales are slowly building, and while it’s not flashy, it’s consistent—and that’s what we love. Every purchase, every bit of feedback, every share helps us grow this little dream of ours. So thank you!
If you’re curious about how fantasy and modern systems can work together, or if you love indie TTRPG design as much as we do, keep following along. I’ll be back with more updates (and probably more coffee-fueled rants) soon.
– Anne
Click here to chat on the SigTrent Games Discord! He designs for you all. Let him know what you want in your next TTRPG experience!
